Love of sport and ultimate teammanship propelled the Bays United Under 13 Gold girls team to five championships this season. The Bays United Current won its league title, league cup, Island cup, Coastal Cup “B” and BC “B” Provincial Cup.
“They’re a fantastic bunch of athletes but they’re also a fantastic bunch of kids and they play like a team and appreciate each other,” says Jackie Cunningham, who coaches the team alongside Damon Henry. “They are an awesome bunch of humans. They’ve been a great bunch to work with.”
The Bays United club draws players from Saanich, Victoria and Oak Bay, meaning the young athletes attend a variety of schools, but they’re also active alongside each other in myriad other sports.
“They’re really amazing multi-sport athletes so they’ve played a lot of other sports together,” Cunningham says. Three recently returned from the BC Summer Games with silver medals in basketball.
They’ve also just hit the age in soccer where league-winning play leads to a playoff format, which meant title after title for the Current this season.
“This is the first year they play for these type of championships,” Cunningham says. “At the beginning of the year we sat down … we talked about team goals. They knew what they wanted to do from the get go and one of those was to get to the provincial championship in Kamloops.”
They swept play during the July 4-8 provincial tournament winning 5-1 over Prince George Timberwolves, defeating Coastal FC Royal 4-1 then heading into the final, a rematch of the Coastal Cup Final with North Shore Avalanche.
“We played really well. The kids, everything came together, you could see it just clicking and they had a great tournament,” Cunningham says.
The rematch Current versus Avalanche proved even stronger at provincials. The Current eked out a 2-1 overtime win in the Cup, a game where team members were again, returning from basketball, field hockey and volleyball tournaments and provincials.
They won 4-0 to clinch the provincial title.
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Bays United U18 girls also earned a berth at the provincial competition in Kamloops. Losing to Pinnacles FC and Nelson, missing the podium.
cvanreeuwyk@oakbaynews.com
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